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Wafers Filled with Cream
Beat together one-fourth pound of powdered vanilla sugar and the whites of three eggs until frothy. Dry well one-half pound of flour and pass it through a fine sieve. Blanch, peel and chop one pound of sweet almonds and mix them together with the flour into the beaten eggs, adding gradually two more beaten eggs and a small pinch of salt. When the paste is quite smooth (it should be liquid), bake a little of it in the oven to test its consistency Wax and sprinkle with flour some baking-sheets, spread thin layers of the above mixture over them and bake in a moderate oven. When done divide the wafers into four-inch squares and roll them into the shape of cornets. Have in readiness a decorated gum-paste stand with a small support in the center with two round shelves jutting out a little above each other. Fix the stand on a round glass dish, place nine of the cornets side by side round the lower shelf, six round the second shelf and stand a vase of sweets on the top; use sugar icing to make the cornets adhere to the stand. Flavor one pint or more of thick cream with a little vanilla and whip it to a thick froth; then fill the cornets with the cream and garnish round the base of the stand with macaroons and candied fruits and round the bottom of the lower shelf with candied flowers. Serve as soon as prepared.
This is a tuile batter dressed up as a table centerpiece. The batter itself is straightforward; everything difficult about the recipe happens in the thirty seconds after the sheet leaves the oven.
- The hinge: roll them hotThe wafers are pliable only while warm and turn brittle within about half a minute of leaving the oven. Cut the squares on the hot sheet and roll each around a cone form or a wooden spoon handle at once; if a sheet stiffens, return it to the oven for 20-30 seconds to soften again.
- Weights in cupsOne-fourth pound powdered sugar is about 1 cup, half a pound of flour about 1 3/4 to 2 cups, and a pound of blanched almonds roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cups whole. The almond quantity is unusually high against the flour, which is what makes the finished wafer so fragile.
- "Two more beaten eggs"The original starts with three whites and then adds "two more beaten eggs" without saying whether whole or white. Either reading works, but whole eggs give a softer, more golden wafer; whites alone give the paler, crisper cornet the presentation calls for.
- Vanilla sugarPowdered vanilla sugar was made by burying split vanilla pods in a jar of sugar for a week or two. Confectioners' sugar with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, or sugar blitzed with a scraped pod, does the same job.
- Chop the almonds fine"Chopped" here probably needs to mean very finely chopped, close to ground: the batter is meant to spread in a thin, even film and coarse pieces will tear it. Pulse them with a spoonful of the sugar to keep them from turning to paste.
- Moderate oven350F. The wafers are done when the edges have browned and the centers are still pale; that will take roughly 5-8 minutes for a thin layer, so watch them rather than trusting a clock.
- "Wax and sprinkle with flour"The direction is to rub the sheet with wax before flouring. Butter and flour work, but a silicone mat or parchment is far more reliable for a batter this thin, and lifts the wafers without cracking them.
- Test bake, and mean itBaking a spoonful first is not fussiness. If it spreads into lace, add a little flour; if it stays thick and domed, thin it with a spoon of egg white or cream. Adjust before committing a whole sheet.
- The stand is optionalA gum-paste tiered stand with jutting shelves is period pastry-kitchen work and not needed to eat the dish. Fifteen filled cornets arranged on a platter with macaroons and candied fruit gives the same effect; serve 6-8.
- Fill at the last minute"Serve as soon as prepared" is the whole instruction on timing. Whipped cream softens the wafers quickly, so pipe the pint of vanilla-flavoured whipped cream into the cornets as the plates go out.
Thin almond wafers rolled while hot are a long-standing trick in European confectionery - the French cornet and the tuile rest on the same principle, that a sugar-and-egg batter is briefly plastic as it cools. What marks this version is not the batter but the architecture: a gum-paste stand with two projecting shelves, cornets cemented on with sugar icing, candied flowers around the base, a vase of sweets on top. The recipe assumes a pastry department with the labor to assemble such a thing. The instruction to bake a test spoonful is the practical heart of the entry and tells you something about the period kitchen: with unstandardized flour and no reliable oven thermometer, a cook checked the batter's behavior rather than the numbers.